Long time auto and WWII aircraft nut here, but for a while I’ve been following and getting inspiration from a lot of very talented modelers throwing together bits and pieces to come up with some awesome builds.
One I found recently was this hover-thingy made mostly from an old mobile phone.
I’ve been waiting for something to magically appear to kick me into gear and have a go at this for the longest time now, and I think that time has come. An old spare mouse finally died, it has some cool textures and profiles, I think I might be able to turn this into something. It definitely won’t be a quick project, likely to sit beside my bench to be tinkered with from time to time, but a vision is already forming.
Im thinking some type of armoured hover recce vehicle ---- side swivel gun mounts or a gun mount one side and recce cameras on the other or central mounted where the mouse wheel goes and fixed sights on the long forward slope with a central cupola … you have me thinking now lol
Like others, the wheel is the front. With a camera/sensors mounted in that location. I think an exposed cockpit is cut out where your palm goes. I think some side panels (sorta like a tie fighter but different shape) off to each side for control/protection.
Other thought, the wheel is the engine exhaust and a cockpit is the palm. Still like the idea of side panel. Some robotic arms for work efforts.
I thinking overall more like research/mining equipment and less military type equipment.
Free advice (and we all know what is said about free advice …)
Old CD-cases are made of styrene (easy to glue) and contain
bits and pieces with various surface textures.
I’m seeing the palm side as the front. The wheel cavity can be filled with the Cushman (without wheels) from Gecko Models or scratch built from other found parts and pieces from electronics.
Wow, awesome feedback and ideas already! Thanks for your input guys, much appreciated. First point of order was to give the whole thing a scrub down with IPA to get rid of all of the greasy fingerprints and crud.
First decision is made, the palm end is the front. It just looks a bit more “aerodynamic” that way and if you look at it side on there are some surface details that support that as well.
Initial thoughts are to open up the straight lines as vents, possibly with some angled deflectors on the leading edge, and to drill out the front end of each of the curved lines and glue in some tube on an angle as an exhaust.
Making a bit of a start, the optical lens from inside the mouse will fit on the outside, and I will mask a couple of spots to stay clear before painting.
The writing on the bottom is in a depressed area, so I decided rather than sanding it clean, I would use some flat sheet to create a raised panel over that area. Thanks to @Uncle-Heavy I dug out an old CD case, cut a masking tape template to transfer the shape, then went to town with the old Dremel.
You have the perfectly shaped carcass Damian, for a futuristic somethingoranother, I’ve been thinking of doing something similar since I seem to have so many obsolete TV and VCR remotes. The future awaits, to go where no man has gone before!
Well here we are, a new year and renewed focus! Time to take stock of the pile of junk I have been throwing in this bucket and see what start to make of it
My first time having a go at something like this, already feels like a lot of fun. Please don’t hesitate to give me a nudge if you see something that seems out of place of have any ideas for improvement.
This really is a cool project concept to have kicking beside the bench and tinker with while paint and cement dries on other things. I went digging through the spares box looking for something to give this thing some lift and found some 1/25 scale rims.
Also dug out some 1/32 vertical stabilisers (I think from a Bf 109) and some 1/48 landing gear from and F-16, might tinker with these to build a pair of stand-off stabilisers.
